CitySavings buys majority stake in Western Union retailer

This bank will be using the money transfer agent to expand its network.

City Savings Bank, a subsidiary of the Union Bank of the Philippines, announced that it has acquired the biggest stake at PETNET, Inc.

PETNET is more popularly known as Pera Hub, which runs the biggest network of Western Union outlets in the Philippines. The brand runs over 2,800 units all over the country, which offers remittance services, currency exchange, and bills payment.

CitySavings and Union Properties, Inc. signed a share purchase agreement with Aboitiz Equity Ventures, Inc. to acquire 51 percent of PETNET common shares, representing movements within the Aboitiz group.

The transaction is expected to be completed and approved by regulators within the second quarter of 2018, the bank said in a disclosure on Feb. 12.

“With this acquisition, CitySavings intends to leverage on PERA HUB’s expansive retail network and expand its existing loans-marketing partnership with PETNET. Importantly this should widen CitySavings’ mass market reach and help achieve its goal of enabling inclusive prosperity,” the bank said in a statement.

“Importantly, this acquisition gives the UnionBank group a strong platform to do agency banking, in which banks are to employ third-party outlets to perform certain financial services in their behalf.”